Combined Essex River Wardens Newsletter: March-April 2016 Welcome to the ninth river wardens newsletter. This will be produced every couple of months to update everyone on what we have been do- ing across Essex. If you have anything that you would like to contribute to the next newsletter then please email it to [email protected] before the end of the month for it to be included in the next issue. Emily is leaving! As many of you know, I will be leaving Essex Wildlife Trust to move to Oxfordshire and work for the River Thame Conservation Trust. I have loved everything about working for Essex Wildlife Trust and will very much miss working on the river wardens project. I have met some truly in- spiring volunteers and wish I could take you all with me to work on the Thame. Your survey forms should now be sent on to [email protected] where a member of the conservation team will pick them up. If you would ever like to get in touch again, or end up in Oxford- shire/Buckinghamshire, then you have my phone number! Halstead Litter Pick Success! A great group of volunteers have got together in the Halstead area to pick up litter, you can see from the picture that they have had some great success. Another litter pick is planned for the 5th of June and all are welcome! Riverfly Update: We have already trained 35 people in riverfly monitoring this year and we will be holding an- other course on the 2nd of July. Please keep an eye out on the website for some updates on how to use the website to upload your re- sults. River Warden Representation at Catchment Partnership Meetings: In both Combined Essex and South Essex, we have river wardens being represented on the catchment partnership groups. This has been a great asset to the partnerships as it helps us to show volunteers the bigger picture, and give us a more localised view. We thank them for their support and look forward to having their help with shaping the future of our catchment partnerships. Water Quality Monitoring by Water Companies The water in our rivers and reservoirs is important, not only for biodiversity and amenity, but al- so for your local water companies. Essex & Suffolk Water abstract water from the Rivers Stour, Chelmer and Blackwater, as well as Abberton and Hanningfield Reservoirs and Anglian Water use the River Colne and Ardleigh Reservoirs in Essex, which is then treated and used to supply their customers with drinking water. In order to achieve the high standards of drinking water, we use the treatment process but also work with farmers and stakeholders in the river catch- ment to improve the upstream quality of the rivers. As a part of this, we monitor the main rivers and their tributaries regularly for levels of pesticides, nitrate, phosphorous and sediment. River water quality in the spring and summer is typically very good. We sometimes see higher levels of pesticides that are used to treat weeds in spring crops and on grassland. If you use a knapsack sprayer for any applications or are using pesticides around your garden, take care to use the right application rate and don’t wash your can down the drain! We will be providing a regular update on water quality in this newsletter using our results for your interest, but if you are interested in getting data for a specific river, please contact: [email protected]. EVENTS: 8th June– Colne Catchment Collaboration Courses 4th June- Pollution Monitoring– South Essex 16th June- Pollution Monitoring– River Brain 2nd July– Riverfly– River Roding Himalayan Balsam Pulls Social Media 21st May– Vernon Way, Braintree Keep up to date with everything that is going on using our social media accounts. Click the 1st June – Daws Hall – Lamarsh images below or search for 4th & 5th June– Marshalls Park Braintree @EssexRiversHub on Twitter or Essex River 25th June – Middle Dalethorpe – Dedham. Wardens and Riverfly Monitors on Facebook Litter Picks 21st May– Wivenhoe Area 5th June– Halstead Colne Conservation Collaboration 8th June– Details released next week! Please get in touch for further details. Call for Volunteers in Witham If you would like to get involved in some litter picks in the Witham area, then please get in touch with Laura Kerry: [email protected] .